Beautiful, atmospheric island
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“Calm and stunning visually, very simple rules to every puzzle that meshes together into a complex world.”
Steam review · 17 h played ↗
The Witness
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 85%Very Positive · 85%Thekla, Inc.2016Walking Simulator · Puzzle · Adventure
$39.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 6 h ago
The verdict
A beautiful, uncompromising line-drawing puzzle game that teaches through discovery and rewards patience. Skip it if you're colorblind, hard of hearing, or dislike pretension and slow pacing.
Great for
Patient puzzle lovers who enjoy figuring out unexplained rules and exploring a beautiful island
Main risk
Repetitive, opaque puzzles and time-wasting design with no accessibility options
What players love
Satisfying aha moments and challenge
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“The Witness makes you feel really stupid and then really smart.”
Steam review · 21.1 h played ↗
Puzzles taught without words
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 positive reviews
“Everything you need to solve a puzzle is given to you without a single word spoken, it's incredible.”
Steam review · 39.4 h played ↗
Clever environmental puzzles and secrets
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 positive reviews
“the puzzles that are part of the environment delighted me so much when i started noticing them”
Steam review · 20.6 h played ↗
Non-linear exploration lets you switch puzzles
Mentioned in ~1 in 12 positive reviews
“If you get frustrated at any point, just leave and go somewhere else. Somewhere on the map is the tutorial for your problem; you just have to find it.”
Steam review · 20 h played ↗
Huge amount of varied content
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 positive reviews
“There is an enormous amount of content consisting of amazingly creative puzzles.”
Steam review · 15.5 h played ↗
What players complain about
Opaque rules and unfair difficulty spikes
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“Sets a rule for a puzzle mechanic proceeds to keep it for 20 puzzle then throws it out the window at the final 2 of an area.”
Steam review · 26.4 h played ↗
Repetitive line-drawing puzzles
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“This game goes for quantity over quality, the puzzles are all pretty similar, but hey there's 523 of them so there you go.”
Steam review · 21 h played ↗
Pretentious audio logs and no story
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“It's a pretentious, pseudo-intellectual narrative that thinks it's profound but doesn't really have anything new or interesting to say.”
Steam review · 2 h played ↗
Poor accessibility: color, sound, flashing
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“This game has NO accessibility options whatsoever”
Steam review · 15.8 h played ↗
Deliberately wastes your time
Mentioned in ~1 in 8 negative reviews
“This game is intentionally designed to waste your time. Everything is comically slow, from animations to movement.”
Steam review · 14.9 h played ↗
Late puzzles made hard by obscuring visuals
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 negative reviews
“the game's idea of "difficulty ramping" is just making the puzzle more hard to do, not that the puzzle is actually any more difficult.”
Steam review · 34.2 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable5 GB
Minimum
OSWindows 7
Processor1.8GHz
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsIntel HD 4000 series
Storage5 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows 7
Processor2.4GHz
Memory8 GB RAM
GraphicsGeForce 780
Storage5 GB available space
OSWindows 7
Processor1.8GHz
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsIntel HD 4000 series
Storage5 GB available space
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